Automatic belt building apparatus

ABSTRACT

An automatic belt building apparatus comprises a belt storing apparatus outwardly shifting endless belts suspended from hangers one by one, a belt feeding apparatus being adapted to lay the extended belt on a convex cylinder and then transfer it to a pulley of a covering machine, a covering machine being adapted to apply on said belt laid on the pulley and being stretched, with cover cloth of a predetermined width and capable of cutting said cloth at predetermined intervals, a detection and removal apparatus for joints in the belt cover cloth which detects the joints in the cover cloth introduced into said covering machine by way of limit switches and leads out said cover cloth by a predetermined length and cuts it for removal up on forecasting an excess in the distance or approach between the bias joints inherent to the cover cloth and those loop joints at the trailing ends of the cover cloth in covering the belts, a belt detaching apparatus detaching the belts from the pulley by pushing said belt from the side thereof while rotating the pulley and running the belts after conpletion of the covering operation, and a belt accumulation apparatus hooking up the belts detached from the pulley by a curved lever and transferring the same to a predetermined location with all of said apparatus being arranged successively and operated automatically.

' United States Patent [1 1 Shirasaka et al. [4 Nov. 4, 1975 AUTOMATIC BELT BUILDING APPARATUS [75] 57 ABSTRACT Inventors: Kaname Shirasaka, Takatsuki;

Takashi Tomiyori, Kobe; Nobuo Simizu, Akashi; Iwao Yamashita; Koithi Nakai, both of Kobe, all of Japan [73] Assignee: Mitsuboshi Belting, Ltd., Kobe,

Japan [22] Filed: Jan. 21, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 435,079

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 19, 1973 Japan 48-9052 [52] US. Cl. 156/353; 156/460 [51] Int. Cl. B26D 5/00; 8291-1 7/22 [58] Field of Search 156/460, 422, 353-355 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,291,674 12/1966 Worrall et al 156/460 X 3,616,071 10/1971 Krause et a1 156/460 Primary ExaminerCharles E. Van Horn Assistant Examiner-D. Simmons Attorney, Agent, or FirmSughrue, Rothwell, Mion, Zinn & Macpeak An automatic belt building apparatus comprises a belt storing apparatus outwardly shifting endless belts suspended from hangers one by one, a belt feeding apparatus being adapted to lay the extended belt on a convex cylinder and then transfer it to a pulley of a covering machine, a covering machine being adapted to apply on said belt laid on the pulley and being stretched, with cover cloth of a predetermined width and capable of cutting said cloth at predetermined intervals, a detection and removal apparatus for joints in the belt cover cloth which detects the joints in the cover cloth introduced into said covering machine by way of limit switches and leads out said cover cloth by a predetermined length and cuts it for removal up on forecasting an excess in the distance or approach between the bias joints inherent to the cover cloth and those loop joints at the trailing ends of the cover cloth in covering the belts, a belt detaching apparatus detaching the belts from the pulley by pushing said belt from the side thereof while rotating the pulley and running the belts after completion of the covering operation, and a belt accumulation apparatus hooking up the belts detached from the pulley by a curved lever and transferring the same to a. predetermined location with all of said apparatus being arranged successively and operated automatically.

13 Claims, 26 Drawing Figures U.S. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet10f12 3,917,502

FIG. I

US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet20f 12 3,917,502

US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet3of 12 3,917,502

FIG. 3

US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet4of 12 3,917,502

US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet50f12 3,917,502

FIG. 7

U.S.Pater 1t Nov.4, 1975 Sheet60f 12 3,917,502

U.S. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet7 of 12 3,917,502

FIGS) U.S. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet90f 12 3,917,502

FIG. l4

US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet 10 of 12 3,917,502

U.S. Patent Nov.4,1975 Sheet110f12 3,917,502

US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet 12 of 12 3,917,502

AUTOMATIC BELT BUILDING APPARATUS DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a belt covering machine for covering belts not covered with the same (simply referred to as belts hereinafter) in the production process for making V-belts. The invention also relates to a series of associated apparatus used in the preceeding and succeeding steps to the operation of said covering machine such as an automatic detection and removal apparatus for the joints in the cover cloth to be applied to the V-belt so as to satisfy the product standard for various size belts, a belt storing apparatus, a belt feeding apparatus, a belt detaching apparatus, a belt accumulation apparatus and the like.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART In the prior production process of V-belts, all of the series of operations for said belts such as storing, feeding, covering, detaching, accumulating, and the like have conventionally been carried out manually. With particular reference to the covering operation, it is performed by laying the belt between a pair of pulleys, keeping said belt in the stretched condition, then leading out and cutting a belt cover cloth of a predetermined width, pressing the same onto said belt in a predetermined position, and folding said cover cloth closely around said belt through the covering roller. However, since the cover cloth is manually cut at a pre determined length also on this occasion, that is, at every circulation length of the belt, uneveness results in the lapping of the joints and it sometimes even causes the frequently detaching of the cover joints. Moreover, excessively long lapping renders the lapped portion thick and hard with the results that the flexibility is reduced and the service life of the belt is shortened. Another drawback is introduced from the use of bias cut cloth for the material of the belt cover, which necessarily introduces bias joints in the cover cloth at predetermined intervals of length in the production process for said bias cut cloth due to the width of the material textile. Thus, said bias joints in the cover cloth may sometimes come adjacent to the loop joints of the cover cloth, which affects the swing of the belt and decreases the flexibility of the same thereby resulting in the ear lier failure of the belt. Therefore, a certain distance is generally required between the joints in the bias cut cloth and the loop joints in the cover cloth formed for each cyclic loop length of belt.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore, the object of this invention to provide a novel and improved apparatus capable of producing high quality and high performance belts automatically and easily and, automatically performing all of the series of operations in the production of the V-belts such as storing, feeding, covering, detaching and accumulating, etc, of the belts.

Another object of this invention is to provide a belt covering machine having a cover cloth transferring and cutting mechanism capable of automatically cutting the cover cloth, of a certain length into predetermined lengths so that the lapping portions with the leading and trailing ends of the cover cloth are uniform in thickness so as not to adversely affect the performance of the belt as a whole.

Further object of this invention is to provide in addition to said covering'machine a mechanism capable of detecting the presence of the joints in the bias cut cloth and preventing the loop joints formed in the cover cloth and those of the bias cut cloth from being situa tion excessively close or overlapping each other in the course of the belt covering operation.

Although the present invention is particularly applicable to the production of V-belts, it can, of course, be applied to other types of belts as well.

This invention is to be described in details by way of the preferred embodiments thereof referring to the accompanying drawings in the sequence of each operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYIN DRAWING FIG. I is an elevational view of a covering machine in the initial and non-operating state according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged elevational view of a portion of the covering machine of FIG. 1 in covering operation;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of the covering machine of FIG. I showing the cutting operation for the cover cloth, as well as the covering operation after the cutting;

FIG. 4 is a side view of a stretching pulley for use with the covering machine according to this invention;

FIG. 4a is an end view of the pulley shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. Sis an end view illustrating the relation between a driving pulley and the cover cloth in the covering operation;

FIG. 6 is an end view illustrating the constitution of a portion of cone ring which bends the cover cloth to the both sides of the belt as well as the state of the bending;

FIG. 7 and 7a are views illustrating the constitutions of first and second cone discs which fold the cover cloth bent to the both sides of the belt further to the bottom thereof as well as the state of the folding;

FIG. 8 is an elevation of the C-ring and a presser roller introducing the cover cloth to the belt;

FIG. 8a is a rear elevation of mechanism of FIG. 8;

FIG. 8b is a cross sectional view of the C-ring illustrating the state of guide rollers and guide plate;

FIG. is a plan view of the cut off portion in the C- ring;

FIG. 9 is an elevation of cutters;

FIGS. 9a and 10 are side and end views of mechanism of FIG. 9 respectively;

FIG. 1 1 is a plan of a belt storing apparatus of this invention;

FIG. 12 is a side view of the belt storing apparatus of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a plan view of the belt feeding apparatus;

FIG. 14 is an elevational view of the belt feeding apparatus;

FIG. 15 is a schematic view illustrating the relative position of the belt storing apparatus and the belt feeding apparatus as well as the operations thereof;

FIG. 16 is an elevational view of a belt detaching apparatus;

FIG. 17 is a side view of the belt detaching apparatus of FIG. 16;

FIG. 18 is a plan of a belt accumulation apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a side view of the belt accumulation apparatus of FIG. 18; and

3 FIG. 20 is an elevational view of the belt covering machine mounted with the belt feeding apparatus, belt detaching apparatus, and the belt accumulation apparatus.

, DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION BELT STORING APPARATUS FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 the the plan and side views respectively of a belt storing apparatus for use with this invention wherein a stationary stand 1 is shown to support, at its upper portion, a rotatable horizontal disc 2 mounted thereon and having dovetail grooves provided radially in each of the equally divided parts (for example, in eight parts as shown for the convenience of the explanation). Said disc 2 is adapted to be rotated intermittently, 1/8 revolution, by a geared motor 3 by way of a pinion 4 and an inner gear 5. A slide bar 9 having two L-shaped hangers 8, 8 for suspending a belt 101 thereon freely slides radially along each of said dovetail grooves in the disc 2 while being always pulled centripetally by a spring 7 and rotates together with said disc 2 with the one end thereof sliding against a collar 10.

On the upper portion of the stand 1, an air cylinder 6 is mounted securely which expands and contracts in the direction aligned with that of the slide bar 9. When it stops'after said intermittent rotation, it pushes a spacer 12 fixed to the slide bar 9 by a cylinder rod 11 to thereby project one of the slide bars 9 selectively that stops in front of the rod by the distance of the cylinder stroke A.

Thus, as the belts 101, which are manually laid or suspended on eight pairs of L-shaped hangers provided on a circle, arrive in front of the air cylinder 6 successively through the intermittent rotational movement, only the belt at said position is spaced apart by the distance A from a circle on which belts are arranged. Then, when said belt is detached by a belt feeding apparatus to be described hereinafter the air cylinder 6 pulls the rod 11 back to its initial position to return the slide bar 9 also to its home position. Then the disc 2 is further rotated by 1 step (1/8 revolution) to repeat the same operation.

BELT FEEDING APPARATUS FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 are plan and side views respectively of the belt feeding apparatus and FIG. 15 is a schematic view for illustrating the relative position between the belt storing apparatus and the belt feeding apparatus and the operation thereof.

The belt feeding apparatus serves to lay a belt, which is projected by the air cylinder 6 in the belt storing apparatus as described in the preceeding paragraph, over a pulley 102 of the covering machine and said apparatus comprises a rotational air cylinder 14, FIG. 13 also secured to the frame of the covering machine and rotating or pivoting by the angle 0. An arm 15 rotated by said cylinder 12 has a concave disc 16 with notched flange (f) is provided at the top of said arm 15 and an inverted concaved disc 18 housed inside of the disc 18 which is normally outwardly projected a distance B by the action of a spring 17 is completely pushed into the same when pressed against the pulley 102 as per the dotted line position. The outer diameter of the disc 18 is made some what larger than that of the pulley 102 and the projection B of the disc 18 is greater than the belt width so that the belt may not fall off when it is laid thereon. A notched flange (f) has two peripheral cut out portions in the upper part thereof so that it may pass, while rotatively transferred by means of the arm 15 by the angle of 6, between the belt 101 suspended on two L-shaped hangers 8, 8 which are projected by the air cylinder 6 of the belt storing apparatus as described in the previously as shown in FIG. 15 and the remaining portions of said frange detach the belt on the hangers 8, 8 and lay it on the disc 18.

The belt 101 thus laid on the disc 18 is further transferred by means of the rotational cylinder 14 to the pulley 102 of the covering machine and the disc 18 is forced into the concave disc 16 when it hits the pulley 102, while, at the same time, the belt 101 transfers from the disc 18 to the pulley 102. Then, the arm 14 is reversed by the rotational cylinder 14 to return to its initial position. Disc 18 is mounted by way of a bracket 19 to the frame 105 of the belt covering machine, and pulley 102 is also mounted to frame 105, so that they are situated on the same level and the resilience of the spring 17 is adjusted so as to be weaker than the pressing force of the rotational cylinder 14.

BELT COVERING MACHINE The structure of the main body of a belt covering machine according to this invention is to be described hereinafter referring to FIG. 1 through FIG. 9, wherein reference numeral 102 denotes a driving pulley with V-shaped slot for rotating and running the belt 101. As shown specifically in FIG. 5, the belt 101 somewhat projects from said V-shaped slot so as to facilitate the pressing of the cover cloth 129 to the belt, and the pulley 102 rotates and transmits the driving power while integrally secured to the main shaft 109 which is driven by a variable-speed motor 108. The variable-speed motor 108 is driven at two steps of speed, high and low, by the setting of a preset pulse counter combined with a pulse generator associated with said main shaft 109 and adapted so as to insure the exact stopping position by rotating at high speed and then switching to a low speed rotation prior to the stopping. Since the generator and the counter (per se) used herein are well known and commercially available, they are not particularly illustrated in the drawings.

The size of the V-shaped slot in the pulley is predetermined so that the pitch circumference of said driving pulley 102 and that of the belt 101 may be met at the same location when laying the belt on the pulley.

Reference numeral 103 denotes a belt stretching pulley reciprocating together with a stretching plate 110 which is shifted by a stretching cylinder 104 in the direction of the belt stretching, up and down for example as shown in the drawing and fixed by a screw 111, at a proper location depending on the size of the belt and allows easy detaching of the belt at the time of retraction as shown in FIGS. 4 and 4a. 110 denotes a guide member for the stretching plate 110. Since the profile of the V-shaped slot in the stretching pulley 103 substantially corresponds to that of the belt cross section in order to prevent the deformation of the belt due to the stretching force exerted on the belt and, therefore, has narrow width, it becomes difficult to fit the belt into the V-shaped slot due to the deformation (bending) or the deflection of the belt caused to some extent therein. In order to avoid this defect, a mechanism for the easy fitting of the belt into the V-shaped slot is provided comprising a flange C FIG. 4a at the outside thereof tapered in such a way as to slide the belt and a similarly inclined guide plate 154 at the inside thereof.

The reference numeral 107 FIG. 1 denotes a pivotal plate which is rotatably attached to the frame 105 of the main body with the axis 106 as the rotation center and is pivoted by a cylinder 112 along a guide plate 113 therefor.

A C-shaped ring 114 is rotatably mounted on said pivotal plate 107 by means of a hollow shaft 118 passing through said plate 107 and ring 114 has a cut out portion (a) FIG. 8a provided on a part of the circumference thereof and oscillates between the cutting position (A) FIG. 1 and the pressing position (B) FIG. 2 for the cover driven by a cylinder 115. The cut out portion (a) has a width corresponding to the angle 6 for mounting cutters (generally 45) described below and not to hinder the movement of the cutters, the center line a and a constituting the cutting line (cutting position) for the cover.

A presser roller 116 is mounted to the pivotal plate 107 by means of a shaft 117 also passing therethrough and the roller 116 adapted to be guided by a cam 119. Cam 119 is secured by way of a key mechanism to the hollow shaft 118 of the C-shaped ring 114 at the back, that is, inside of the frame and the presser roller 116 is pressed to the driving pulley 102 by a spring 120 only when the cut out portion (a) lies at the pressing position (B) FIG. 2.

A rectangular space (b) FIG. 8a formed in the cut out portion (a) of the C-shaped ring 114 is a recess receiving the presser roller 116 at the time of the pressing. An auxiliary presser roller 121 is additionally provided in the C-shaped ring 114 roller 121 being carried by a pivotable arm, FIG. 2, and said auxiliary presser roller 121 is adapted to be pressed onto the driving pulley 102 only when it is situated on the pressing position (B) by the force of a spring 122.

At both sides of said rectangular recess (b), as shown in FIGS. 8 and 8a, suction apertures 150 are provided which communicate with vacuum channel 151 on the side and further extend in the location (F) where not hindered by the frame 125 of the cutters by way of a hose from the hollow shaft 118 to a vacuum valve (not shown) in the frame 105.

The reference numeral 153 in FIG. 8b denotes a semicircular guide member which guides the cover cloth 129 to a proper position relative to the belt 101 and the cover cloth 129 advances along several guide rollers 148 provided passing through the guide 153 while controlled at its both sides by said guide 153.

In FIGS. 9, 9a and 10, a cover cloth cutting mechanism is shown wherein reference numerals 123 and 124 denote a pair of cutter blades operating in a overlapping manner which are guided along the cutter frame 125 secured to the pivotal plate 107 FIG. 2 with an angle corresponding to the bias cut angle 6 of the cover cloth 129, and close and open with the expansion and contraction of a cylinder 126 to thereby perform the cutting of the cover cloth 129. In the shown embodiment, the cutter 124 is secured to the rod 124a of the cylinder and the cutter 123 is secured to the frame 125.

Referring to FIG. 5, FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, a covering mechanism is shown, wherein a bracket 133 is secured to the pivotal plate 107 so that the stretched belt may be wrapped therein as shown in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 6, a cone ring 127 of a V-shaped pulley is mounted to said bracket 133 and holds the belt 101 therebetween by way of a spring 128 to fold the cover 129 from both sides about the belt 101.

Dual pairs of cone rollers 130 are provided with cone rollers respectively on two positions of the bracket 133 (four rollers in all) as shown in FIG. 7, pivoted by the cylinder 131 and crank arm 132 to hold the belt 101 between the pair and the rollers are formed of such configuration that the their sides meet the belt when they catch the belt. The belt. 101 is supported at the time, at its upper surface. by a support roller 134 provided on the bracket 133.

As shown in FIGS. 7, 7a, cone discs 135, 136 are inclined respectively by holding means 137 and 138 secured to the frame 105 so that the cone surface may be in parallel with the bottom face of the belt. Discs 135, 136 are located at such position as to be pressed slightly against the belt 101 by way of a spring 139 and rotated following the running of the belt. As shown in FIG. 7, the cone disc 135 is adapted to be rotated forcedly at a circumferential speed a little higher than that of the belt 101 by way of a belt 154 having a certain tolerance for the slipping (round belt of polyurethane for the practical use) through an orthogonal axes speed reducer 152 facilitating the bending of top of the cover.

The operation for wrapping the belt with cover cloth by using the mechanism according to this invention comprising the foregoing mechanism for each of the portions to be described in the sequence of the operation.

I. As shown in FIG. 1, a belt 101 to be covered with the cover is laidon the V-shaped slot of a driving pulley 102 and a starting switch is turned on. Then, a stretching pulley 103 is moved downwards as shown in FIG. 2 by a cylinder 104 to thereby stretch the belt 101 downward and pull the same straight as well as prevent the slip against the driving pulley.

II. Then, the cut out portion (a) of the C-shaped ring 114 is rotatively transferred in the direction of arrow F, FIG. 8, by a cylinder from the point (A) to point (B) while attracting the top of the cover cloth 129 out at the point (A) to the suction apertures 150 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, when a presser roller 116 peels the end of the cover cloth from the C-shaped ring by the action of a cam 119 and a spring as shown in FIG. 8c overcoming the attraction force due to the vacuum and forces the end against the belt 101. The belt 101 is kept under pressure and the vacuum is removed simultaneously.

III. Then, the driving pulley 102 is driven by a variable-speed motor 108 to circulate the belt 101 and stops when it runs a distance less by the length of (A) to (B) than one belt circulation or cycle.

IV. The C-ring 114 is then reversed until the cut out portion (a) returns to the position (A) and cutters 123, 124 are actuated by a cylinder 126 to cut the cover cloth on the bias configuration while attracting and holding the cover by way of vacuum. At the time of the cutting, auxiliary presser roller 121 takes the position (B) and presses the cover cloth to the belt 101 by the action of a spring 122. In other words, the presser roller 116 is substituted with the auxiliary presser roller 121 when the belt runs a distance shorter by (A) to (B) than one belt circulation or belt loop cycle.

V. Then, the driving pulley is rotated again and stopped at the point where the cut end of the cover completely passes through cone rollers 130, and cone discs 135, 136 and the covering is thus completed.

VI. Thereafter, the cone roller is opened by the cylinder 131 and the pivotal plate 107 is returned by 7 the cylinder 112 and then the belt 101 is detached. The apparatus returns to the initial state thereby completing one operational cycle.

DETECTION AND REMOVAL APPARATUS FOR THE JOINTS IN THE BELT COVER CLOTH In the long sized cover cloth for use with this invention, bias cut cloth is used as described above and a lot of bias joints necessarily result at certain length intervals. In order to prevent the bias joints inherent to the cover cloth and those loop joints formed of the leading and trailing edges of the cover cloth from being situated excessively close to each other, a mechanism for detecting the bias joints of the cover cloth and cutting to remove the portion of the bias joints is added to the covering machine.

This mechanism mainly comprises, as shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 respectively, a pivotal arm and limit switches for detection. A pivotal arm 140 is secured to the shaft 106 which is driven by a reversible motor 141, normally resides at position (E) FIG. and has a movable jaw 143 at its radially outer end effecting a clipping action in cooperation with a fixed jaw 142 by means of a hydraulic cylinder 144. The arm 140 rotates to the position (A) at the detection of the bias joints in the cover cloth, catches the top or leading end of the cover 129 by jaws 142, 143, reverses its rotation by way of a motor 141, if necessary, to the posititon (C) or (D), FIG. 20 to lead out the cover cloth 129, returns to the position (E) after the apparatus achieves cutting the led out cover cloth by the cutters 123, 124, opens the jaws 143 and causes the cut piece of the cover to fall. On this ocassion, the rectangular recess (b) in the C-ring serves as a recess allowing the free passing of jaws 142, 143.

Long length cover cloth 129 wound on a reel is fed from a separate feeding apparatus (not shown) and guided along each of the guide rollers 145, 146 and 147 and further through the guide rollers 148 of C-ring to the point (A). Said rollers 145 and 147 are secured to the frame 105 and the roller 146 is movable and positioned properly by a screw 149. Limit switch (LS-1) is provided adjacent the guide roller 148 FIG. 1 of the C- ring and a limit switch (LS-2) is provided adjacent the guide roller 145 respectively, each of said switches being adapted to actuate when a bias joint in the cover cloth (lapped joint portion) passes by. Although only two limit switches are shown in the drawing, more may optionally be added if necessary. Referring to the cover cloth 129, it is cut on the bias of a predetermined width (usually 1350 mm width of plain weave) and successively jointed to form a continuous long band for covering the V-belt. In said cover cloth, the bias joints are usually formed by lapping and thus, their thickness is doubled. Thus, said bias joints become thicker than other portions of the cover when covering the V-belt circumference. Therefore, in covering the V-belt as described previously the two joint portions, that is, the bias joints necessarily resulted in forming a continuous band by cutting the cloth on the bias and joining the bias cut pieces and the loop joints formed due to the cutting and applying the cover cloth to the belt may approach each other closely or may overlap each other. The detection and removal apparatus according to this invention serves to detect and remove such troubles effectively and automatically.

It is generally specified as the product standard with the minimum tolerance for the distance between the bias joints inherent to the forming of belt cover cloth on the bias cutting and joints due to the cutting in covering operation in the production process. The conditioning and the operation of the detection apparatus of this invention is to be described with a provision that said minimum tolerance is mm for convenience of explanation.

I. At first it is determined that the length of the cover cloth between (A) and (B) is 100 mm.

II. The limit switch (LS-l) is positioned and mounted so as to provide a cover cloth length also of 100 mm between the point (A) and said limit switch (LS-l).

III. As shown in FIG. 2, the guide roller 146 is positioned and mounted so as to provide a cover length of one circulation of belt from the point (A) to the limit switch (LS-2) when the cut off portion (a) in the C-ring is on the point (B), that is corresponding to the length of the belt loop to be covered.

IV. As shown in FIG. 3, the roller 147 is positioned and mounted so as to lead out the cover cloth by 100 mm due to the difference in the relative distance between the guide roller 148 of the C-ring through which the cover cloth passes at first and the roller 147 when the cut out portion (a) returns from the position (B) described previously to the position (A) while the pivotal plate 107 remains at the same location (reversing of the C-ring 114 for return in order to cut the cover cloth).

V. The stopping points (C), (D) for jaws 142, 143 to catch and lead out the cover cloth are set at the points to lead out the cover cloth 129 to 100 mm and 200 mm distances respectively.

VI. The preset counter is set in such a way as to rotate the main variable-speed motor 108 at a high speed and then switch it to the retarded speed rotation 100 mm before the stopping point. (before the bias joint point in the belt length by 100 mm).

Based on the foregoing setting for each of the conditions, and as shown following the table with the combination of the operational conditions for the limit switches (LS-1) and (LS-2) and the stopping points of the jaws, the cover cloth can be applied onto the belt by leading out and cutting the cover cloth while preventing the bias joints from coming closer to the belt cover cloth loop joints than 100 mm.

Operation Low speed Return Leading out Jaw stop position LS-Z C Operation LS l LS-2 D limit switch LSl C LS-2 LS-l D LS-2 C 9 3. Leading out period while the jaws 142 and 143 travel from the points (A) to (C) leading out the cover cloth.

BELT DETACHING APPARATUS The V-belt completely covered in said covering machine is detached from the pulley by the belt detaching apparatus shown in FIG. 16 and FIG. 17 which show elevation and side views respectively thereof.

Referring to the drawing, a push roller 21 is provided perpendicular to the belt at the back thereof and slightly behind the driving pulley 102 with respect to the traveling direction of the belt and is mounted to the frame 105 of the covering machine by brackets 23 and 23 so that the front face of said roller may be pushed forwardly by an air cylinder 22 by the angle When the belt 101 is completed from the covering operation, it is pushed forward by the actuation of the air cylinder 22 while rotated in the direction of an arrows and, the belt 101 is readily be detached from the pulley 102.

The belt 101 can be detached in either case where the stretching pulley 103 opposing to the driving pulley 102 is in the extended or contracted condition but it is preferred to push out the belt while slackening the stretching pulley 103 in order to prevent the belt deformation due to the V-slot.

BELT ACCUMULATION APPARATUS The belts detached from the pulley as described above are collected together by the accumulation apparatus and, as they are accumulate in certain numbers, delivered to the succeeding step. The accumulation apparatus is used to introduce the belts 101 detached from pulley 102 to the side and ahead of the covering machine instead letting them fall as they are and, as shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19, they are made to locate at the side ahead of the covering machine. The apparatus comprises a curved lever 27 mounted to the output axis of a rotational air cylinder 25 which is attached to the frame 105 by a bracket 24 below the pulley 102. The belt then falls and pivotally rotates by the angle of 0 forwardly into the recess (d) of the driving pulley 102 with the top thereof at one extreme end of the pivotal movement.

When the belt 101 completes the operation it is driven by the pulley 102 and detached from the pulley 102 by means of the push roller 21 of the belt detaching apparatus by while positioning the top of the curved lever 27 into the recess (d) of the pulley 102, the belt is easily loaded on the top of the curved lever 27 and as shown in FIG. 19, simultaneously falls and accumulates on the bracket 24 due to the slope of the lever.

For the easier understanding of the assembled appearance of a series of associated apparatus according to the foregoing invention, they are shown by reference in FIG. 20 which is a elevation view of said associated apparatus mounted to the frame 105 of the covering machine, wherein belt feeding apparatus 14 l9, belt detaching apparatus 21 23, and the belt accumulation apparatus 24 27 are illustrated.

The covering machine, and a series of apparatus associated thereto such as the detection and removal apparatus of the bias joints in the cover cloth, belt storing apparatus, belt feeding apparatus, belt detaching apparatus, belt accumulation apparatus and the like as well as the operation thereof have been described in detail. By the use of the foregoing covering machine and the associated apparatus according to this invention, all of the operation steps that have been carried out manually and intermittently so far can be thoroughly automated and the non-uniform quality in products having been dependent on the skill of individual operators can thus be eliminated. Particularly, the covering machine according to this invention can improve unevenness in the cutting of the cover cloth and the overlapping of thejoints in said cloth thereby insuring the uniform lapping thus to improve the performance of the belt. Moreover, the addition of the limit switches and the leading out and removing means for the cover cloth enables to automatically prevent "the joints inherent to the cover cloth cut on the bias and those in the cover cloth due to the cutting in covering the belt from approaching excessively thereby performing the automatic and more effective covering which can provide better belt performance.

What is claimed is:

1. An automatic belt building apparatus comprising: a belt storing apparatus for moving laterally outwardly endless belts suspended from hangers one by one, a belt covering machine including a rotatable pulley, a belt feeding apparatus adapted to transfer the extended belts, one by one, onto a convex cylinder and then transfer the same onto said pulley of said belt covering machine, means for rotatably driving said pulley, means for stretching said belt on said pulley, means carried by said covering machine for applying a strip of cover cloth of a predetermined width on said belt laid on the pulley when stretched and for cutting said cloth at predetermined lengths, a detection and removal apparatus for bias joints in the belt cover cloth which detects the bias joints in the cover cloth introduced into said covering machine and leads out said cover cloth by a predetermined length and cuts it for removal of a portion therefrom prior to covering the belt with the remaining cloth on forecasting the approach between the bias joints inherent to the cover cloth and those loop joints of the trailing edges of the cover cloth in covering the belt, means for pressing the cloth onto the belt during rotation of the pulley, a belt detaching apparatus for detaching covered belts from the pulley including means for pushing said covered belts from one side thereof while rotating the pulley and said covered belts running therewith, and a belt accumulation apparatus for hooking up the belts detached from the pulley, said belt accumulation apparatus including a curved lever and means for transferring the same to a predetermined location, and means for operating said apparatus successively and automatically.

2. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said belt storing apparatus is provided on the upper portion of a stationary stand and comprises; a rotatable horizontal disc having dovetail grooves provided in the direction of radius equally dividing the disc into eight parts, slide bars freely slidable radially along said dovetail grooves in said disc and biased centripetally by way of a spring, each bar having two L-shaped hangers thereon. for suspending the belt at the top thereof, and a cylinder and cylinder rod provided at the upper portion of said stand and means for stopping said disc at a predetermined position after each intermittent rotation of the same by 1/8 revolution, and means for projecting only the slide bar that stops at said predetermined position by a certain stroke radially outwards of the arranging circle of belts.

3. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1 characterized by said belt feeding apparatus comprising: a rotational air cylinder providing a pivotal rotation by the angle of 0, an arm capable of rotating also by the angle of 0, a first concave disc having a notched flange at the top thereof and provided on the top of said arm, and an inverted second concave disc contained inside of said first concave disc and normally projected outwardly thereof by a spring to a certain extent.

4. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein: said pulley is a driving pulley and said covering machine comprises; means for driving said driving pulley at a lower and a higher speed and a stretching pulley having an outwardly tapered flange and an inwardly inclined guide plate provided on the frame.

5. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 4 further comprising: a cover introducing mechanism adapted to successively introduce cover cloth corresponding to various sizes of the belt.

6. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 4 further comprising: a pivotal plate which is pivoted by way of an air cylinder around a stationary axis on said frame as a pivot center, and wherein said plate carries a rotatable member upon which the leading end of the cover cloth is introduced.

7. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein: an annular C-ring is provided on said pivotal plate, and said ring comprises apertures for attracting the cover cloth by vacuum attraction and has a vacuum channel provided on the side thereof, a presser roller and an auxiliary presser roller are provided at the inside thereof, and a cut off portion at a part thereof is adapted to be oscillatorily pivoted by the air cylinder between the cutting position and the pressing position of the cover cloth.

8. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 7 characterized by cutters mounted on said pivotal plate with a biased angle so as to be capable of cutting the cover cloth when the cut off portion of said C- ring returns from the pressing position to the cutting position.

9. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein: a cone ring of a V-configuration holds the belt therebetween by a spring force andtwo pairs of cone rollers are bracket mounted to the lower portion of said pivotal plate, and two cone discs are provided on positions opposite to said cone rollers on said frame for facilitating covering of the belt.

10. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said detection and removal apparatus for the joints in the belt cover cloth comprises a pivotal arm mounted on said frame of the covering machine and having at the radially outer end thereof a fixed jaw and a movable jaw and being relatively movable to grasp the cloth.

11. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein: the length of the circumference of said means for applying a strip of cover cloth and the stopping positions of the belt driving pulley and stretching pulley are preset relative to each other and a'plurality of limit switches are provided along the introduction path of the cover cloth in such a way that when the bias joints inherent to the cover cloth are forecast to ap proach excessively close to loop joints in the cover cloth produced at each belt circulation in covering the belt, said pivotal arm is pivoted to the cutter position and the leading edge of the cover cloth is led out by a predetermined length by said jaws and cut to thereby automatically eliminate either an overlap of said loop and bias joints in the cover cloth or closeness within a predetermined range.

12. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said belt detaching apparatus has a push roller provided a little below a driving pulley on the frame of said belt covering machine and extendable forwardly by means of an air cylinder to a predetermined angle.

13. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said belt accumulation apparatus comprises; a rotational air cylinder providing pivotalrotation to a given angle and a curved lever hooking the belts pushed forwardly by means of said push roller and accumulating the same on a bracket provided on the side of said frame of the belt covering machine. 

1. AN AUTOMATIC BELT BUILDING APPARATUS COMPRISING: A BELT STORING APPARATUS FOR MOVING LATERALLY OUTWARDLY ENDLESS BELTS SUSPENDED FROM HANGERS ONE BY ONE, A BELT COVERING MACHINE INCLUDING A ROTATABLE PULLEY, A BELT FEEDING APPARATUS ADAPTED TO TRANSFER THE EXTENDED BELTS, ONE BY ONE, ONTO A CONVEX CYLINDER AND TRANSFER THE SAME ONTO SAID PULLEY OF SAID BELT COVERING MACHINE, MEANS FOR ROTABLY DRIVING SAID PULLEY, MEANS FOR STRETCHING SAID BELT ON SAID PULLEY. MEANS CARRIED BY SAID COVERING MACHINE FOR APPLYING A STRIP OF COVER CLOTH OF A PREDETERMINED WIDTH ON SAID BELT SAID ON THE PULLEY WHEN STRECHED AND FOR CUTTING SAID CLOTH AT A PREDETERMINED LENGTHS, A DETECTION AND REMOVAL APPARATUS FOR BIAS JOINTS IN THE BELT COVERING CLOTH WHICH DETECTS THE BIAS JOINTS IN THE COVER CLOTH INTRODUCED INTO SAID COVERING MACHINE AND LEADS OUT SAID COVER CLOTH BY A PREDETERMINED LENGTH AND CUTS IT FOR REMOVAL OF A PORTION THEREFROM PRIOR TO COVERING THE BELT, WITH THE REMAINING CLOTH ON FORECASTING THE APPROACH BETWEEN THE BIAS JOINTS INHERENT TO THE COVER CLOTH AND THOSE LOOP JOINTS OF THE TRAILING EDGES OF THE COVER CLOTH IN COVERING THE BELT, MEANS FOR PRESSING THE CLOTH ONTO THE BELT DURING ROTATION OF THE PULLEY, A BELT DETACHING APPARATUS FOR DETACHING COVERED BELTS FROM THE PULLEY INCLUDING MEANS FOR PUSHING SAID COVERED BELTS FROM ONE SIDE THEREOF WHILE ROTATING THE PULLEY AND SAID COVERED BELTS RUNNING THEREWITH, AND A BELT ACCUMULATION APPARATUS FOR HOOKING UP THE BELTS DETACHED FROM THE PULLEY, SAID BELT ACCUMULATION APPATATUS INCLUDING A CURVED LEVER AND MEANS FOR TRANSFERING THE SAME TO A PREDETERMINED LOCATION, AND MEANS FOR OPERATING SAID APPARATUS SUCCESSIVELY AND AUTOMATICALLY.
 2. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said belt storing apparatus is provided on the upper portion of a stationary stand and comprises; a rotatable horizontal disc having dovetail grooves provided in the direction of radius equally dividing the disc into eight parts, slide bars freely slidable radially along said dovetail grooves in said disc and biased centripetally by way of a spring, each bar having two L-shaped hangers thereon for suspending the belt at the top thereof, and a cylinder and cylinder rod provided at the upper portion of said stand and means for stopping said disc at a predetermined position after each intermittent rotation of the same by 1/8 revolution, and means for projecting only the slide bar that stops at said predetermined posiTion by a certain stroke radially outwards of the arranging circle of belts.
 3. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1 characterized by said belt feeding apparatus comprising: a rotational air cylinder providing a pivotal rotation by the angle of theta , an arm capable of rotating also by the angle of theta , a first concave disc having a notched flange at the top thereof and provided on the top of said arm, and an inverted second concave disc contained inside of said first concave disc and normally projected outwardly thereof by a spring to a certain extent.
 4. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein: said pulley is a driving pulley and said covering machine comprises; means for driving said driving pulley at a lower and a higher speed and a stretching pulley having an outwardly tapered flange and an inwardly inclined guide plate provided on the frame.
 5. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 4 further comprising: a cover introducing mechanism adapted to successively introduce cover cloth corresponding to various sizes of the belt.
 6. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 4 further comprising: a pivotal plate which is pivoted by way of an air cylinder around a stationary axis on said frame as a pivot center, and wherein said plate carries a rotatable member upon which the leading end of the cover cloth is introduced.
 7. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein: an annular C-ring is provided on said pivotal plate, and said ring comprises apertures for attracting the cover cloth by vacuum attraction and has a vacuum channel provided on the side thereof, a presser roller and an auxiliary presser roller are provided at the inside thereof, and a cut off portion at a part thereof is adapted to be oscillatorily pivoted by the air cylinder between the cutting position and the pressing position of the cover cloth.
 8. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 7 characterized by cutters mounted on said pivotal plate with a biased angle so as to be capable of cutting the cover cloth when the cut off portion of said C-ring returns from the pressing position to the cutting position.
 9. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein: a cone ring of a V-configuration holds the belt therebetween by a spring force and two pairs of cone rollers are bracket mounted to the lower portion of said pivotal plate, and two cone discs are provided on positions opposite to said cone rollers on said frame for facilitating covering of the belt.
 10. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said detection and removal apparatus for the joints in the belt cover cloth comprises a pivotal arm mounted on said frame of the covering machine and having at the radially outer end thereof a fixed jaw and a movable jaw and being relatively movable to grasp the cloth.
 11. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein: the length of the circumference of said means for applying a strip of cover cloth and the stopping positions of the belt driving pulley and stretching pulley are preset relative to each other and a plurality of limit switches are provided along the introduction path of the cover cloth in such a way that when the bias joints inherent to the cover cloth are forecast to approach excessively close to loop joints in the cover cloth produced at each belt circulation in covering the belt, said pivotal arm is pivoted to the cutter position and the leading edge of the cover cloth is led out by a predetermined length by said jaws and cut to thereby automatically eliminate either an overlap of said loop and bias joints in the cover cloth or closeness within a predetermined range.
 12. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said belt detaching apparatus has a push roller provided a little below a driving pulley on the frame of said belt covering machIne and extendable forwardly by means of an air cylinder to a predetermined angle.
 13. An automatic belt building apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said belt accumulation apparatus comprises; a rotational air cylinder providing pivotal rotation to a given angle and a curved lever hooking the belts pushed forwardly by means of said push roller and accumulating the same on a bracket provided on the side of said frame of the belt covering machine. 